Frontiers in Neuroscience
2025
Albert Gidon, Jaan Aru, Matthew E Larkum
1 citation
Artificial neural networks are becoming more advanced and human-like in detail and behavior. The notion that machines mimicking human brain computations might be conscious has recently caused growing unease. Here, we explored a common computational functionalist view, which holds that consciousness emerges when the right computations occur-whether in a machine or a biological brain. To test...
Neuron
May 15, 2024
Johan F. Storm, P Christiaan Klink, Jaan Aru et al.
108 citations
How is conscious experience related to material brain processes? A variety of theories aiming to answer this age-old question have emerged from the recent surge in consciousness research, and some are now hotly debated. Although most researchers have so far focused on the development and validation of their preferred theory in relative isolation, this article, written by a group of scientists...
Trends in Neurosciences
December 1, 2023
Jaan Aru, Matthew E Larkum, James M Shine
Interactions with large language models (LLMs) have led to the suggestion that these models may soon be conscious. From the perspective of neuroscience, this position is difficult to defend. For one, the inputs to LLMs lack the embodied, embedded information content characteristic of our sensory contact with the world around us. Secondly, the architectures of present-day artificial intelligence...
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
November 14, 2023
Brandon R Munn, Eli J Müller, Jaan Aru et al.
Understanding the neurobiological mechanisms underlying consciousness remains a significant challenge. Recent evidence suggests that the coupling between distal-apical and basal-somatic dendrites in thick-tufted layer 5 pyramidal neurons (L5PN), regulated by the nonspecific-projecting thalamus, is crucial for consciousness. Yet, it is uncertain whether this thalamocortical mechanism can support...
Frontiers in Systems Neuroscience
August 30, 2019
Jaan Aru, Mototaka Suzuki, Renate Rutiku et al.
One fundamental feature of consciousness is that the contents of consciousness depend on the state of consciousness. Here, we propose an answer to why this is so: both the state and the contents of consciousness depend on the activity of cortical layer 5 pyramidal (L5p) neurons. These neurons affect both cortical and thalamic processing, hence coupling the cortico-cortical and thalamo-cortical...